Does anyone know of any tubular front control arms for my 62 Starfire and maybe some coil over shocks to go along with them.
Thanks Dennis

 

There is no market for this product, so no one makes them. 62 Impala suspension parts DO NOT fit the full size Olds.

 

Thanks Joe, I figured as much. I've been reading about full size GM cars 61-64 having cater problems.
Dennis

 

Pretty much all GM cars through the mid-70s have insufficient caster adjustment. Back in the days of manual steering as base equipment, the use of near zero, or even slight negative, caster made for easier steering at the expense of handling and steering feel. If you are trying to dial in as much positive caster as possible, your two options are to 1) settle for as much as you can get with shims, or 2) relocate the upper ball joint rearward on the upper control arm.

I did the former on my 67 Delta. I was only able to get just under one degree positive caster before I ran out of shimming capability. I've since acquired a spare set of upper control arms and plan to try to relocate the ball joints rearward when I do the disk brake swap.

 

I haven't installed my control arms on the frame yet. Is there anyone that modifies the upper ball joint. By the way, this is turning into an interesting conversation.
Dennis

 

I have no idea. I was simply planning on welding a piece of plate over the hole on the stock upper arm and machining a new opening further rearward. This builds in caster. Note that the upper ball joints carry no up and down load, only load in the plane of this new plate, so stresses and loads are pretty low. I'd be much more concerned if I were talking about modifying the lower control arm, which DOES carry the weight of the car.

 

How far would you move the ball joint and what thickness metal would you use. I understand about the weight of the car, but what about the up and down action on the spindle like when hitting a pot hole. Quite a jar there
Dennis

 

Again, ALL the up/down loads are carried through the LOWER ball joint. Think about it. If you disconnect the upper ball joint, there is no resistance (other than friction) if you push up and down on the upper ball joint. The control arm just pivots on the shaft. No resistance means no load is carried in that direction. The thickness of the plate should be the same as the thickness of the control arm. As for how much to move the ball joint, do the math. This is high school trig. Measure the center-to-center distance between the two ball joints. Say you want to add 3 degrees of positive caster. As an example, if the center-to-center distance is 7", the distance is sin(3) x 7, or about 3/8" towards the rear.

 

So, with a hypotenuse of 7 times the sin of 3 degrees we get the opposite side of approximately 3/8.

 

Exactly. As I said, I don't know if 7" is the right number - you'll have to measure your exact suspension parts. 3-4 degrees positive caster is what newer cars have. Be aware that increasing caster will increase steering effort. With power steering that usually isn't an issue.

 

OK Joe, if I put the control arms on the spindles and measure the distance between the ball joint holes I'll have my hypotenuse. How critical is this measurement, 1/4" or less? Everything is on the shelf right now and won't be that hard to put together on the bench and measure.
Dennis

 

1/4" on the hypotenuse is about 0.013" in the fore/aft direction for location. There is much more than that available in adjustment through shimming. Even a 1" discrepancy in that measurement is only 0.050" difference.

 

I finally got around to measuring the distance between the top of the upper and lower control arms at the ball joints. The measurement is 9.75 and doing the trig to 4 degrees I come up with about 11/16". Am I in the ball park?
Dennis

 

Yup. That's what I get. Again, this is not that critical, as you do have substantial adjustment with the shims. Since the suspension adjustment is biased the other way, err on the side of too much relocation. Of course, you have to be sure the ball joint and boot don't run into the lip on the control arm, so that is also a limitation.

 

I will make a jig to mount the arms to on a flat piece of sheet metal. That way I can create points to measure from. As far as the lip goes I will cut the end and lip off and manufacture a new one to move the hole. I'll take pics and post along the way. First I have to take the A-arms off of the donor car.
Dennis

 

this sounds interesting i would love to see pics